Audio only
Our Man Down in Havana
The Story behind Graham Greene’s Cold War Spy NovelBy Christopher HullNarrated by Gildart JacksonLength11h 41m
About this audiobook
Exploring the backstory that led to the writing of Graham Greene’s beloved satirical spy novel, Our Man Down in Havana evokes this pivotal time and place in the author’s life.
When US immigration authorities deported Graham Greene from Puerto Rico in 1954, the British author made an unplanned visit to Havana and discovered that “every vice was permissible and every trade possible” in a Caribbean fleshpot of mafia-run casinos and nude revues. The former MI6 officer had stumbled upon the ideal setting for a comic espionage story. Three years later, he returned in the midst of Fidel Castro’s guerrilla insurgency against a US-backed dictator to begin writing his iconic novel Our Man in Havana. Twelve weeks after its publication, the Cuban Revolution triumphed in January 1959, soon transforming a capitalist playground into a communist stronghold.
Combining biography, history, and politics, Our Man Down in Havana investigates the real story behind Greene’s fictional one. This includes his many visits to a pleasure island that became a revolutionary island, turning his chance involvement into a political commitment. His Cuban novel describes an amateur agent who dupes his intelligence chiefs with invented reports about “concrete platforms and unidentifiable pieces of giant machinery.” With eerie prescience, Greene’s satirical tale had foretold the Cold War’s most perilous episode, the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
Exploiting a wealth of archival material and interviews with key protagonists, Our Man Down in Havana delves into the story behind and beyond the author’s prophetic Cuban tale, focusing on one slice of Greene’s manic life: a single novel and its complex history.
Audiobook details
GenreBiography and Memoir, History
Length11 hrs 41 mins
Narrated byGildart Jackson
FormatAudiobook
Publish dateJun 18, 2019
LanguageEnglish
Why Not Me? A Feeling of Millions (Hinglish)Unknown Author4h 8m5.0 (1)$20 · $0.00
Matters of the HeartJacinta Nampijinpa Price9h 35m$29 · $0.00
How to Test Negative for StupidJohn Kennedy8h 13m$28 · $0.00
Defying JihadEsther Ahmad8h 50m$20
Bad Fat Black GirlSesali Bowen6h 32m$24 · $0.00
Frederick Douglass: All 3 Memoirs in One VolumeFrederick Douglass42h 36m$1 · $0.00
Send MeMarty Skovlund, Joe Kent8h 10m$26 · $0.00
Ulysses S. Grant: Life of the Fearless General & Commander-in-Chief (Complete Edition - Volumes 1&2)Ulysses S. Grant30h 34m$2 · $0.00
Left for DeadEbony Canion5h 34m$17
Invisible StormJason Kander6h 48m$24 · $0.00
Forever BoyKate Swenson9h 27m$29 · $0.00
You Are Worth ItKyle Carpenter, Don Yaeger8h 53m$29 · $0.00
The Happiest Man on EarthEddie Jaku3h 48m$7 · $0.00
MotherlandJulia Ioffe17h 52m$40 · $0.00
Evidence Not SeenDarlene Deibler Rose11h 11m$29 · $0.00
A Bridge Not Too FarDeepak Ohri4h 55m$15
Where Cowards Go to DieBenjamin Sledge8h 42m$20 · $0.00
Will You Love Me?Cathy Glass9h 5m$29 · $0.00
Designing Terry Pratchett’s DiscworldPaul Kidby3h 52m$20 · $0.00
HostageEli Sharabi5h 25m5.0 (1)$24 · $0.00
The Two Swords of ChristRaymond Ibrahim15h 55m$30
Black AF HistoryMichael Harriot15h 43m5.0 (1)$33 · $0.00
The Gulag Archipelago Volume 3Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn21h 56m$46 · $0.00
The Redeemer’s ReturnArthur W. Pink13h 18m$20
The Happiest Man on EarthEddie Jaku3h 48m$7 · $0.00
MotherlandJulia Ioffe17h 52m$40 · $0.00
Where Cowards Go to DieBenjamin Sledge8h 42m$20 · $0.00
Frederick Douglass: All 3 Memoirs in One VolumeFrederick Douglass44h 9m$2 · $0.00
The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America (Annotated)Howard Irving Chapelle, Tappan Adney13h 10m$2 · $0.00
I've Been to the MountaintopMartin Luther King48m5.0 (1)$11 · $0.00
RevolutionariesSanjeev Sanyal11h 23m$29 · $0.00
We Crossed a Bridge and It TrembledWendy Pearlman6h$24 · $0.00
Unbroken Bonds of BattleJohnny Joey Jones8h 31m$8 · $0.00
The Daughter of AuschwitzTova Friedman, Malcolm Brabant7h 54m$26 · $0.00
Lily's PromiseLily Ebert, Dov Forman8h 54m$29 · $0.00
Saving My EnemyBob Welch9h 11m$20
On Democracies and Death CultsDouglas Murray10h 38m$29 · $0.00
Across the RiverKent Babb11h 40m$29 · $0.00
Balcony Over Jerusalem: A Middle East Memoir - Israel, Palestine and BeyondJohn Lyons12h 37m$33 · $0.00
The Fire Next TimeJames Baldwin2h 25m$15
You may also like
Ashenden - The British Agent (Annotated)W. Somerset Maugham10h 47m$2 · $0.00
The Buck Passes FlynnGregory Mcdonald5h 54m$17
UNDER WESTERN EYESJoseph Conrad36h 41m$1 · $0.00
The Prague CemeteryUmberto Eco16h 3m$33 · $0.00
The DefectorRichard Kerbaj9h 50m$29 · $0.00
Operation ShylockPhilip Roth16h 4m$30
The Lesser BourgeoisieHonoré de Balzac20h 42m$2 · $0.00
KangarooD. H. Lawrence16h 39m$2.30
The Moving FingerE. Phillips Oppenheim8h 45m$2 · $0.00
The SmearSharyl Attkisson11h 20m$29 · $0.00
The Vision of the AnointedThomas Sowell9h 21m$20 · $0.00
BureaucracyHonoré de Balzac6h 27m$2 · $0.00
Plain Tales from the Hills: 40+ Short Stories Collection (The Tales of Life in British India) (Annotated)Rudyard Kipling10h 45m$2 · $0.00
The BrothersStephen Kinzer13h 27m$23 · $0.00
A Curious ExperienceMark Twain1h 9m$2 · $0.00
Things That Can and Cannot Be SaidArundhati Roy, John Cusack1h 55m$15
This Was CNNKent Heckenlively, Cary Poarch5h 31m$17 · $0.00
Writer, Sailor, Soldier, SpyNicholas Reynolds9h 15m$29 · $0.00
Unlimited AccessGary Aldrich2h 54m$17 · $0.00
The Vatican DiariesJohn Thavis12h 47m$23 · $0.00